Original HTC ROM may be better for some in USA

[flamingcrumb]

I have the HTC branded P3600 unlocked.

I tried out both LVSW's cooked ROM and the latest Dopod D810 ROM. Both are excelllent updates, but turned out not to be right for me. Thought I'd share in case this is useful to anyone else.

I am in an area of Los Angeles in the US which still does not yet have 3G. I also don't personally need the GPS feature. I am fine with an ordinary map and I need my battery life for phone and email. That is just my personal preference.

Anyway, in my case, I found three pitfalls with the new ROMs.

1. The phone got hotter and used more battery. I assume that the GPS was trying to do its thing even though I wasn't actually using it.

2. Signal can be sketchy at my home. The HTC P3600 has been the first PDA phone to give me a full strength signal here, on a par with a standard cell phone. But with the new ROMs my full bar strength fell in half. I assume this is to do with further optimizations for 3G which, unfortunately, currently give me no benefit. Anyhow, I got weaker GPRS/EDGE and weaker GSM.

3. The Dopod ROM (and LVSW cooked variant - which is a very nice job BTW) have significantly different ActiveSync/Direct Push settings. The Heartbeat Increments and other related settings are quite different. This was not good for my Exchange service and Push Mail. I started getting my mail at about 5 minute intervals, not right away. Some kind of timeout going on I guess. Of course, I was able to dip into the registry and make adjustments, but with my lower EDGE signal, things still were not working quite as well.

Bottom line: I went back to the Official HTC P3600 ROM (fortunately I had saved it before it had to be removed from the XDA-Dev FTP site. (HTC do not provide even the original ROM to customers at this time). There was no problem going back. So no harm, no foul.

I did save the HTC Task Manager application and added it back in. Nice addition, missing from the original HTC version. So it was definitely worth trying the new ROMs all in all.

Obviously, the issue here is that my local Network is lacking - the new ROMs are good. But the fact remained the original ROM gives me much better performance here, particularly battery life, signal strength and more reliable Direct Push. :)

[kewlphone]

:o Sorry for the unrelated post, but I needed some help after reading your post.
I am also in the Los Angeles area (OC) with T-Mobile.
I got an unlocked trinity about 2 months ago. It has worked very well, except I do not seem to be able to connect to Edge. Your post seemed to indicate that you have been able to connect to it.
Can you please tell me how I can make that happen?

Also, which GPS software would you recommend for Southern California, if I chose to enable the GPS hardware on my machine.

Any help will be appreciated.

Thanks

[flamingcrumb]

Hi Kewlphone! I think (hope!) you are actually getting Edge. For some reason the HTC P3600 simply displays the G symbol even when you are getting Edge. To be fair I think Edge is just an upgraded form of GPRS. Actually if you install the Dopod ROM it does give you the E symbol. There may well be a registry tweak to show an E, but I just don't know it.

There are no special settings needed. I just connect to wap.voicestream.com.

internet2.voicestream.com also works with my Internet plan, but I prefer to connect the first one as it also is the right one for picture messaging. Also you want to have T-Mobile Internet, not just the T-Mobile Web plan (formery t-zones) which is restricted to sites for phones and does not allow full Internet access or downloading attachments.

T-Mobile just tightened up their protocols dues to a cheat some people had been using to get full access out of the Web plan. This temporarily messed up my Internet access but tech support reprovisioned my account as I pay for the full Internet plan.

First off, I suggest you check your actual download speeds using

http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed?jisok=1

It is speed test specially for Mobile devices. If you get around 30 to 40 kbps ish that is standard GPRS. Edge should be around 100 to 120 ish in practice. Obviously it varies a lot by time of day, location etc.

There is also a registry tweak I found that may help download speed. You need a registry editor like Total Commander available from ghisler.com (You would want to download the 2.5 beta version for WM5. It is free).

The registry setting involved determines how much data the device will accept in a chunk.

HKLM\Comm\Tcpip\Parms\TcpWindowSize

If your device has this parameter set to less than 65536 change it to this amount. This helped me get consisitent Edge speeds. I am not aware of any harm that will be done be setting it higher still, other than you may need to set it back again if it doesn't work right!

Sorry, I have no experience with GPS software. The program people mention generally is Tom Tom. I believe this is the defacto choice for many people and it is made for many different devices. I am sure the company has a web site. If not I am sure it is available at places like mobileplanet.com.

Please bear in mind that we people using this site (XDA-dev) are enthusiasts who like to tweak and customize our phones. It is not our objective to help ourselves to free software, only to get the most out of the devices and the built-in software we have already paid for... I don't mean to suggest you are looking for any free downloads and you certainly did not imply that. I am just conscious there has just been an issue with Microsoft objecting to some of the downloads on this site so we need to be careful to keep things absolutely clearly legit. Tom Tom is a commericial product not included with the P3600 and will need to be purchased separately.

HTH :)

[MacGuy2006]

I am also in LA (West side.) Here is my experience:

I use LVSW's ROM and get 3G (Cingular.) Just tested a 1MB file download from the dslreports link above and got 642kbit/sec. There are some areas in town where it goes to E (for EDGE,) but at least in my case it's not too often (it went to E yesterday in the Custom's area at LAX, but to be honest, I was just happy to get signal there:-)

The GPS works great. I don't really use it here, because I have built-in ones in my cars, but it is very handy when travelling.

I also don't use Cingular's push mail, but use my POP3 mail account, and have set the Trinity to check it every 15 minutes, which works fine for me.

[flamingcrumb]

642kbps?? :eek: WOW! Excuse me while a turn as green as the HTC theme with envy! That is intersting for me as I am also on LA's west side. BTW I concur about reception inside LAX customs area. Just being able to make a regular call from there is a feat! Hardly a concern that your data merely dropped to Edge speed!

I had been considering switching to Cingular to get 3G, although both where I live and where I work are both actually just off the official 3G map at the moment.... Switching would also just about double my bill, and put me back in a contract. So I am holding out till 3G coverage settles down a bit more. Looks like T-Mobile are finally going to 3G here, though that may still take many months...

Do Cingular even offer there own Push Mail? I was under the impression that their Xpress mail service retreives mail something like the T-Mobile equivilent (15 minutes intervals) I use Direct Push from my Exchange account so it requires only the Data connection, nothing else carrier specific.

Sorry, I am getting way off topic. This is not carrier comparision forum!

The relevant point is that it is good to know that the LVSW ROMs seems like the best for people in the USA too, assuming your carrier has 3G and especially if you use GPS. My situation sounds like the exception and will likely be transitory anyway.

BTW MacGuy2006, I think kewlphone might appreciate your advice on GPS software. Sounds like you have quite a bit of experience with it.

Thanks for the info :D I might join you on Cingular yet! I also think we may soon see even more ROM magic from our friend LVSW too!

[MacGuy2006]

Yeah, I am sort of satisfied with Cingular, and really do like 3G, which finally makes PDA Internet use a possibility for me (I can read the wires if I am stuck somewhere:-) They refer to "push-mail," but I have not tried it, so I don't know if it's instantaneous or not.

As to GPS software, I use TomTom 6, which is generally fine and has a broad range of maps. I kind of like the design of Navigon 6 a bit better (http://www.navigon.com/site/us/en/mobile_navigation/pda/screenshots,) but have not seen it in action.

As an aside, yesterday I installed the 1.38.00.11 radio ROM lurking here, and my 3G speeds never exceeded the mid-400s. It may have been a fluke, but I went back to 1.35 and clocked in the mid-700:-)

[flamingcrumb]

Thanks for sharing that info. Just to check, do you find you are able to up and downgrade just the Radio ROMs without a hard reset? TIA :)

[Kyzgar]

I'm using the Dopod Rom with the 1.38 radio upgrade. As expected, the battery life is significantly reduced with the GPS enabled (using TomTom6), but overall I really like the fact that my phone can basically do anything now.

I think it might have more difficulty picking up signals now than it did with the original HTC rom. When I'm in my home office, I really don't get any signal at all now, which my plethora of computer equipment doesn't help, but the phone shows a solid four bars when I'm at work, and it connects to Edge very fast there too.

I tried both TomTom 6.02 and 6.03, and 6.03 is definitely better. It automatically knows to use the built-in GPS receiver (You don't have to select NMEA, COM 9), and it grabs the signal faster. Unfortunately I couldn't get the maps activated for 6.03, but they don't have any problem with 6.02, so I'm stuck with it.

I'm definitely looking forward to upgrading to WM6. Woot!

-John

[MacGuy2006]

Thanks for sharing that info. Just to check, do you find you are able to up and downgrade just the Radio ROMs without a hard reset? TIA :)

No, I backed up, reinstalled the LVSW ROM and restored:-)

[kewlphone]

Hi flamingcrumb,

Thank you for your detailed response.
I have the full t-mo web plan, but have specifically taken access to internet3.voicestream.com becuase of VPN access needs.
I ran a speed test on my device and it shows 39 kbps. That tells me it is a regular GPRS connection. Do you know of any areas in the region where Edge is available? Sounds like westside may be one.

As far as GPS software goes, I was looking for recommendations based on availability and correctness of maps for southern cal. I had purchased and used Ostia in the past, however I did not like either the interface or stability.

Thanks

[MacGuy2006]

... As far as GPS software goes, I was looking for recommendations based on availability and correctness of maps for southern cal....

You can compare maps here: http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=53419

AFAIK, TomTom uses Tele Atlas maps, which are fine (but I had one problem finding a a street in Orange County.) Navigon, I believe, uses Navteq maps, which I think of as more accurate (one of mine built-in navigation systems uses Navteq maps, and it has never lied to me:-)

[flamingcrumb]

I appreciate the helpful posts on using GPS and the various software options. Good to know. Nothing I can add, you good people all know way more than I do, I don't see reduced battery life with GPS as a "fault" in any way - just a law of physics. For example, if I had my phone on for web browsing all the time at full brightness and used bluetooth plus wireless non-stop, the battery is going to run down faster. That's fair enough. I did notice there seemed to be a little bit of more drain with the GPS ROMs even with GPS inactive. I wonder if it ticks away in the background ready for use? It does certainly seem that enabling additional features might be reducing standard GSM sgnal strength. My feeling is that a little bit of internal radio interference might be a reasonable thing to expect. The Trinity has goodness how many radios? 4 bands of GSM, 3 Bands of w/CDMA, BlueTooth, WiFi, GPS... all in a device the size of deck of cards. Again, the laws of physics may simply apply.

The bottom line I get from this is there is unlikely to be a benefit in upgrading to a ROM which provides features I am not accessing. That doesn't mean the new ROMs are anything less than great, just not of benefit with my carrier in my location at this moment.

kewlphone, I definitely think you should be getting Edge speeds everywhere in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, without even doing any tweaks. Bear in mind the standard HTC P3600 ROM always seems to just show the G, the key test is the speed not the symbol. But the speed you describe is not Edge. It will vary by time of day and location etc, so it is worth repeating the test quite a few times. You defintely should be seeing at least 100k when you have a full signal strength in urban areas, especially at off-peak hours... at least some of the time! I think you should call Customer Support and ask for a data specialist and talk it over with them. Perhaps they can reset your data account or help in some way. The positive spin I always go for to keep them on my side even though I have an unsupported phone is by explaining I am a loyal customer but the phones they offer don't meet my needs at present. So I am using my own phone because otherwise I would have to switch to another carrier and I don't want to "because you guys are so great" etc etc. In a few months there will be more T-Mobile phones available and I will be getting one. In the meantime I need to make things work so I can stay with T-Mobile. This is a semi-truth and but greatly overstates my loyalty, which is really only limited to the killer deal I get on a huge bucket of minutes (and is being serverely tested by their lagging in the 3G...) but it is a positive spin to give them a good reason to help me even though my phone is unsupported.

BTW I describe the Trinity as being most like the MDA but a generation or two on. If you get a decent data technician the chances are good they will know what you are talking about and will also be well away of T-Mo's limitations themselves. Chances are good they will do their best to help.

A place that might be helpful and more appropriate for discussing US carrier issues is howardforums dot com. They also have a Wiki which is quite useful. Obviously the XDA-Dev forum is for the tech stuff and tweaking to the the max! I think I have the same user name on howardforums so maybe we can find a good thread for trouble shooting our carrier stuff over there. Don't think I have actually posted yet but I will do as I ultimately need to decide whether to stick with T-Mo or jump to Cingy/ATT. If you register with the same name it will be easy for me spot you on their board. All the best. Please let me know about your progress :D

[flamingcrumb]

Sorry to bump this thread when it is probably only of interest to a small number of people - perhaps mostly in L.A. on T-Mo.

Quick update: I must confess that I caved in and have switched to Cingy/ATT. Much better signal strength where I live, even just on EDGE. I don't like their sky high rates or customer service all that much, plus their data plans are a riduculously complicated mess of choices... but they do have a lot of 3G and much better coverage in my location...oh well. Also feel like it will still surely take T-Mo a lot of time to deploy their own 3G... and I can always go back later!

Anyway, it now really made sense for me to upgrade my ROM. I have also been trying out GPS, just wih the free Google Maps for the monent as a little taster test! Pretty cool though :)

Another really big reason I gave up on the standard ROM was that I kept having the age old issue of my reminders not sounding and could cure only it with a hard reset each time. It has yet to be seen if the updated ROM helps or not. I realize the non-sounding reminders issue is a well known Windows Mobile problem, but it was happening every couple of weeks rather than once in a while. Anyone got any thoughts on this please???

The reminders issue is probably my biggest factor in picking a ROM and there is no obvious way of choosing between the HTC/LVSW/Dopod options other than trying them all. I cling to av ague hope someone might have already been through this one...

Oh, BTW I am using LVSW 1.24.0.0 with Radio 1.33.00.11

TIA :)

[turcomora]

You only need the $19.99 unlimited media works plan to take advantage of 3G. Cingular will tell you that you must have the $49.99 pda plan but you do not, trust me I use my trinity with the media works plan and I use 3G perfect usually around 350kbs, for streaming video.

[cortez.i]

You only need the $19.99 unlimited media works plan to take advantage of 3G. Cingular will tell you that you must have the $49.99 pda plan but you do not, trust me I use my trinity with the media works plan and I use 3G perfect usually around 350kbs, for streaming video.

same here...i'm using the unlimited $19.99 plan and i also use my phone for internet sharing with my laptop (e.g., phone as a modem).

[flamingcrumb]

Thanks good people. I had noticed that the MEdia Net plans seems to do the job (without restriction if the proxy is not used) but could not be sure if that was a lucky fluke or that is how it is...

Good to hear the definite facts from people with solid experience.... and I much appreciate it.

Coming in, I do really think the Cingy data plans are a confusing mess... I would imagine the average Joe or Jane walking into a phone store could feel overwhelmed. I think they should simplify the plans... but what do I know? (Not much, I admit!)

While we are talking Trinty and Cingular may I ask which ROM people feel is best for stabilty right now? I was having that prob with reminders not sounding... an old issue, but much worse than usual! Any guidance would be welcomed.

Best :)

P.S. turcomora, when you mention Streaming Video are you talking Cingy Video>...? I have been following the threads but still can't get that to work. Or are you refering to something else, like the Streaming Media application (which I have yet to figure out a use for!) Either way I would be most interested. Thanks again and B4N